Israel should take advantage of Syria’s poor image in the world to ask the international community to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Finance Minister Yair Lapid suggested in a recent meeting of the security cabinet.Lapid’s office would not confirm or deny his statement, which was first reported by Army Radio. But a source present at the meeting confirmed the report.The report said that when the security cabinet met three weeks ago, Lapid said the world did not trust Syrian leader Bashar Assad and observed that US Secretary of State John Kerry was pushing for Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians.
He said those factors could make it a good time to push to keep the Golan.Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin responded that it was always a good time to campaign for maintaining Israeli control over the Golan.But Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said he was against the idea.“It is wrong to remind the international community about our control over the Golan,” Danon said. “It is better to let sleeping dogs lie.”